The Good, the Bad, and the Beautifully Drawn at Getty

The J. Paul Getty Museum presents “Virtue and Vice: Allegory in European Drawing”, an exhibition exploring how European artists from the 16th to 19th centuries made drawings to criticize bad behavior as well as praise virtuous actions.

On view at the Getty Center from March 3 through June 7, 2026, the exhibition features 32 drawings that range from straightforward examples of charity, lust, and greed, to complex allegories that depict virtue, decadence, and friendship. These drawings were meant to be emotionally moving and taught lessons that condemned sinful behavior or praised honorable deeds.

“The extraordinary objects in this exhibition visualized morality, reinforced political ideologies, mimicked social hierarchies, and reflected gender roles from the time, challenging people to understand their meaning and act accordingly,” said Timothy Potts, Maria Hummer-Tuttle and Robert Tuttle director of the Getty Museum.

Featured among drawings that celebrate virtuous behavior is Cornelis Ketel’s preliminary design for an allegorical print, Design for the Central Section of “The Mirror of Virtue”. In it, a nude figure of Charity generously gifts the sun and moon to two other allegorical figures beside her. The personification of Ingratitude nastily repays Charity for her gift by biting her arm and stabbing her side with a dagger, while the kneeling figure of Gratitude graciously accepts it. Through his drawing, Ketel emphasizes the value of the two virtues and invites viewers to reflect on how their behavior aligns with ideal behavior.

Also on display is “Saint Martin Dividing his Cloak with a Beggar”, by Lorenzo Lotto, highlighting the virtuous act of charity. Lotto portrays Martin of Tours, a Christian saint who served as a Roman soldier and bishop, enacting his well-known act of altruism—Martin used his sword to cut his military cloak in half to clothe a cold, naked beggar, and later had a vision of Christ wearing the piece of cloak he had given away. Lotto heightens the grandeur of the selfless act by using white highlights to create a powerful sense of movement in the fabric, the leaning saint, and the horse’s arching neck and foot.

Vice is given the spotlight in “Amorous Couple”, drawn by Jacob Matham, which centers around a young couple engaging in foreplay, while an elderly woman watches from behind the drapery. The young woman is seen seductively exposing her knee and cupping her lover’s face. Behind them, a partial view of a nude couple foreshadows a passionate encounter. This drawing was made by Matham to illustrate the consequences of drunkenness, warning viewers against the vice of indulgence.

In Jacques de Gheyn II’s, “Allegory of Avarice”, a beady-eyed, humpbacked frog sits on a pile of coins, with one claw-like hand resting on a sphere while the other greedily grasps the coins beneath. De Gheyn gave free rein to his imagination and drew the large sphere to symbolize the earth and the frog as the world’s ugly desire for wealth.

“Art has influenced and modified human behavior throughout history,” said Stephanie Schrader, curator of drawings at the Getty Museum. “We hope our visitors will be critical of the art they see and think about how drawings functioned and what purpose they served.”

“Virtue and Vice: Allegory in European Drawing” is curated by Stephanie Schrader, curator of drawings at the Getty Museum.

To complement “Virtue and Vice”, there will be an evening of short fiction inspired by the exhibition’s drawings, as part of Getty’s “Selected Shorts series”, on Saturday, March 14 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Tickets can be purchased online for $25. Visitors can also join curator-led tours on March 10, March 31, April 21, and May 5 at 2 p.m.